Smartphones powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor are about to get a boost in intelligence. Qualcomm today introduced the Neural Processing Engine SDK for Snapdragon 820, which will allow smartphone makers to add their own machine learning programs to devices with the 820 aboard. The Neural Processing Engine SDK relies on Qualcomm's Zeroth Machine Intelligence Platform. Zeroth is already baked into the Snapdragon 820 where it helps detect malware. Qualcomm says the SDK will enable typical deep learning behaviors such as scene detection, text recognition, object tracking and avoidance, facial recognition, and natural language processing. Most importantly, devices that rely on Zeroth will not need a network connection to learn or execute these actions. The SDK itself will include a bevy of tools to help developers create and add such learning behaviors to their smartphones. Qualcomm expects the Neural Processing Engine SDK for Snapdragon 820 to become available during the second half of the year.


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